M-I-C-K-E-Y, Kathie Lee, and Me

In Haiti, people sew Disney clothing for 28 cents an hour
when the prevailing local wage is 58 cents. In the United
States, Michael Eisner, the CEO of Disney, makes $97,000 an
hour. In Indonesia, 13-to-15-year-olds work to make products
that likely are for sale in a mall near you. In many places
around the United States, manufacturing jobs have
disappeared, relocated to other places where labor costs are
cheaper.

These facts, of course, are all connected. For many
people, their share in the global economy isnt goods
and profits, but anxiety, hardship, uncertainty, and a sense
of lack of control.

Multinational corporations and free trade are not going
away. But might we find the power to help make the local
impact of world commerce more benign, so that communities and
ordinary peoplenot just CEOs and
stockholdersprofit? Church people and others around the
country are beginning to try.

In 1995, the National Labor Committee in Support of Worker
and Human Rights (NLC) launched a campaign that resulted in
The Gap signing an independent monitoring agreement for its
plant in El Salvador. Last year Wal-Mart agreed to pull
manufacturing of its Kathie Lee Gifford line of clothing from
a Honduras factory with abusive conditions.

The most recent campaign, launched late last year,
challenged the Disney corporation to withdraw contracts from
manufacturers with abusive labor practices, to require
contractors to pay a living wage and allow employees the
right to organize, and to agree to independent monitoring.
Disney was also asked to withdraw from Burma, where half of
the profits earned from producing Disney clothing went
directly to the repressive Burmese military dictatorship. As
a result Disney pledged to pull out of Burma by this past
December.

Members of churches and synagogues have been a significant
component of each of these campaigns. The People of Faith
network, for example, mobilized people in its 2,000
congregations to write letters, visit and call company
officials, and organize local demonstrations in front of
stores and headquarters. Letters from pastors and church
people helped make The Gap officials and Gifford pay
attention to the issues theyd raised. The Gap signed
its independent monitoring agreement at a Presbyterian church
in Brooklyn.

PEOPLE OF FAITH FORMED in 1994 when Rev. David Dyson (a
Presbyterian minister and former labor organizer) and other
pastors were struck by the way the Republican Contract With
America and the Christian Coalitions Contract With the
American Family ignored issues of poverty and racismand
by the mainline religious communitys lack of
substantive response to these gaps. They decided, according
to Dyson, to mobilize local congregations into a "hard
list" with a solid contact in each. In a letter-writing
project, he said, they can be counted on for a letter from
the pastor on church stationery plus as many as 50 to 60
letters from the congregation.

Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the NLC, said
that the impact of the People of Faith network is "10
times its size. The churches and synagogues come through with
the letters, and companies havent figured out a way to
write off religious people."

The network also mobilized around church burnings last
year. Congregations have worked locally on other issues such
as campaign finance reform, public school funding, and St.
Paul, Minnesotas living wage campaign.

The Wal-Mart and The Gap campaigns have in small but not
insignificant ways improved work conditions for people in
manufacturing plants. Theyve also placed the persistent
problem of sweatshops (in the United States and abroad) on
the publics radar. And they show that improving
conditions overseas is inextricably linked with preserving
U.S. jobs and workers rights.

"We dont want to pull those jobsthose
countries need them," Dyson said. "We dont
want Disney to stop making a profit. But they should pay a
competitive wage." When companies can with impunity
export jobs and pay starvation wages, is it any wonder that
the manufacturing base here is sharply declining?

Organizers foresee the Disney campaign being a long haul
effort. "Morally we couldnt be silent any longer
about the abuses in labor practices and human rights
connected with Disney," said Dyson. "They have
taken the gospel of global economy to its lowest common
denominator."

There has been progress already. Because of the public
scrutiny, Disney has formed an internal international labor
standards group to review all of its contracts worldwide and
its corporate conduct guidelines. While this internal process
is likely to stop short of the standards and stringent
grassroots monitoring that the NLC seeks, it is still a
victory. "Its certainly a sign that Disney has
been reached," said NLCs Kernaghan.

Organizers are viewing the Disney campaign as an ongoing
opportunity to educate people on global economy issues. The
split between haves and have-nots is not merely between the
industrialized world and developing world. The United States
now has the greatest disparity between rich and poor of the
industrialized nations. Knowledgeand actiongives
all of us a choice other than apathy or despair.

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